Early years[edit]

Chelsea Victoria Clinton was born on February 27, 1980, in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is the only child of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham. Hillary described Chelsea's birth as "the most miraculous and awe-inspiring event in my life".[1] During the first days of Chelsea's life, Bill took her on father-daughter walks around the hospital, singing to her, rocking her and showing her off. Chelsea was also the first grandchild for both sets of her grandparents. Bill's mother Virginia and the Rodhams often babysat when they visited. Chelsea's name was inspired by a visit to the Chelsea neighborhood of London during a Christmas 1978 vacation; Hillary said that upon hearing the 1969 Judy Collins recording of the Joni Mitchell song, "Chelsea Morning", Bill remarked, "If we ever have a daughter, her name should be Chelsea."[1][2][3]

When Chelsea was two years old, she accompanied her parents as they campaigned throughout Arkansas for Bill's gubernatorial race.[1] She attended Forest Park Elementary School, Booker Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School and Horace Mann Junior High School, which are public schools in Little Rock.[4] She skipped the third grade.[5]

White House years[edit]

On January 20, 1993, the day of her father's first inauguration, Chelsea moved into the White House with her parents and was given the Secret Service codename "Energy".[6] The Clintons wanted their daughter to have a normal childhood, and they hoped to shield her from the media spotlight.[7] Hillary followed the advice of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on raising children in the White House, and asked the press to limit coverage of Chelsea to her participation in public events such as state visits.[2]Margaret Truman, daughter of former president Harry S. Truman, supported the Clintons, and in March 1993 wrote a Letter to the Editor of The New York Times about the damage that could be done if the press made Chelsea a subject of intense coverage.[citation needed]

Journalists debated the issue of allowing Clinton to retain her privacy, and most media outlets concluded that she should be off-limits due to her age.[7] This agreement was honored until she turned 13, when her appearance became the subject of ridicule for satirists and commentators, including Rush Limbaugh[7] and Saturday Night Live.[8] During this phase of her life, her father said, "We really work hard on making sure that Chelsea doesn't let other people define her sense of her own self-worth ... It's tough when you are an adolescent ... but I think she'll be ok."[9]

The Clintons' decision to remove Chelsea from public schooling and send her to Sidwell Friends School, a private school in Washington, D.C., drew criticism.[7] While several children of sitting presidents have attended there, the most recent prior child, Amy Carter, had gone to D.C. public schools. In a 1993 CBS This Morning town meeting, Bill defended the choice, stating that Chelsea did not like "getting a lot of publicity" and would have "more control over her destiny" at Sidwell. Hillary said, "if [Chelsea] were to go to a public school, the press would never leave her alone".[citation needed] Bill explained that they made their decision in an effort to protect Chelsea's privacy; they did not "reject the public schools".[10] Sidwell's students and staff remained silent regarding Chelsea, declining to discuss her publicly and thereby giving her the privacy that the First Family had sought.[7] A veteran of Model United Nations,[11] Clinton was a 1997 National Merit Scholarship semifinalist.[12] She graduated from Sidwell Friends in 1997; her father spoke at the graduation ceremony.[13]

Following Chelsea's high school graduation, media speculation regarding her choice of college resulted in heavy press coverage. She ultimately chose to attend Stanford University. During her father's eight years in office, there were 32 stories in The New York Times and 87 network news stories about Chelsea. Of all presidential children preceding her, she received the most television coverage.[14]

Although her father is a Southern Baptist, Clinton was raised in her mother's Methodist faith.[15] She attended Foundry United Methodist Church on 16th Street, NW in Washington and met with other teens on Sunday mornings to examine questions of faith, philosophy, and issues of concern to her age group. Her parents joined her at the youth group's parent-teen round tables. An adult group leader thought Clinton to be "a terrific kid" and observed that she was treated as an equal in the group. Away from church, her social activities included visits to a Planet Hollywood restaurant with friends and sleep-overs in and out of the White House. President Clinton sometimes joined her and her sleep-over friends for breakfast.[7]

At age four, Clinton had begun taking dance classes in Arkansas,[16] and she continued her dance training at the Washington School of Ballet for several years. In her book, It Takes a Village, Hillary wrote that Bill was disappointed when Chelsea quit softball and soccer to concentrate on ballet, but he was nonetheless supportive, regularly attending her performances.[7] She was cast in the role of the Favorite Aunt[17] in the 1993 Washington Ballet production of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker.[7][18]

In early 1999, the Clintons learned of an article that was being planned by People which examined the First Family's relationships in the wake of scandals and the impending vote on President Clinton's impeachment. The Secret Service told the magazine that they had concerns that the story could compromise Chelsea's security. People decided to run the story anyway, and Bill and Hillary issued a statement expressing their regret and sadness. Carol Wallace, People managing editor, affirmed the magazine's sensitivity to the Clintons' concerns, but felt 19-year-old Chelsea was "an eyewitness to family drama and historical events" and thus "a valid journalistic subject". The article, entitled "Grace Under Fire", was published in February 1999 with a cover photo of Chelsea and Hillary.[19] During the last year of her father's presidency, Chelsea assumed some White House hostess responsibilities when her mother was campaigning for the U.S. Senate, traveling with her father on several overseas trips and attending state dinners with him.[20]

Education and academic life[edit]

Stanford University[edit]

Clinton entered Stanford in the fall of 1997 and majored in history.[21][22] The week before she arrived on campus, her mother published an open letter in her syndicated column asking journalists to leave her daughter alone. Chelsea arrived at Stanford in a motorcade with her parents, Secret Service men, and almost 250 journalists. For her security, bullet-proof glass was installed in her dorm windows and cameras were placed in hallways. In addition, Secret Service men dressed as students lived in her dorm.[23] With the exception of an occasional tabloid story written about her, Chelsea's four years at Stanford remained out of public view.[24]

Clinton graduated in 2001 with highest honors and a B.A. in History.[21][24] The topic of her 150-page senior thesis was the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland.[24] At the time of Chelsea's graduation, President Clinton issued a statement saying, "Hillary and I are grateful for the friendships and great learning experiences Chelsea had at Stanford, and we are very proud of her on this special day."[25]

University of Oxford[edit]

In July 2001, President Clinton revealed that Chelsea would be pursuing a Masters degree at University College of the University of Oxford later that year – the same college where he studied politics between 1968 and 1970 on a Rhodes Scholarship;[26] Chelsea did not apply for a Rhodes Scholarship. Lord Butler of Brockwell, the Master of University College, said: "Her record at Stanford shows that she is a very well-qualified and able student. The college is also pleased to extend its link with the Clinton family." Upon the recommendation of British and American advisors, the university implemented security measures,[27] and fellow students were asked not to discuss her with the press.[28]

Arriving at Oxford just after the September 11 attacks on the United States, Clinton was drawn to other American students who were also feeling the emotional after-effects of the trauma. She told Talk magazine:

Every day I encounter some sort of anti-American feeling. Over the summer, I thought I would seek out non-Americans as friends, just for diversity's sake. Now I find that I want to be around Americans – people who I know are thinking about our country as much as I am.[28]

Clinton was criticized for those remarks in the London press and by the newspaper Oxford Student, which angered the university by directly attacking her in an editorial.[28] However, people who met Clinton at that time described her as charming, poised and unaffected, and she seemed to be adjusting successfully to life abroad.[28] During her time at Oxford, Chelsea adopted a more sophisticated look, reportedly assisted by a family friend, Donatella Versace, whose couture shows she attended in early 2002. Geordie Greig, the editor of Tatler, ranked her number five on the magazine's 2002 "Top 10 Girls" list.[28]

In 2003, Clinton completed an MPhil in international relations.[29] Following her graduation, she returned to the United States.[21] In 2011, Clinton began pursuing a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford, doing her doctoral work from New York City where she resides;[30][31] she was awarded the degree in May 2014.[32]

Columbia University and New York University[edit]

Starting in 2010, Clinton began serving as Assistant Vice-Provost for the Global Network University of New York University, working on international recruitment strategies.[31] She is the co-founder of the Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership at NYU and serves as its co-chair.[36] In 2012, Clinton received an award from the Temple of Understanding for her "work in advancing a new model of integrating interfaith and cross-cultural education into campus life," together with Imam Khalid Latif and Rabbi Yehuda Sarna.[37]

In November 2011, NBC announced that they hired Clinton as a special correspondent. One of her roles was reporting feature stories about "Making a Difference" for NBC Nightly News and Rock Center with Brian Williams. It was a three-month contract and allowed her to concurrently continue working for the Clinton Foundation and pursue her education.[40][41] Clinton's first appearance was on the December 12, 2011, episode of Rock Center.[42] Although she received some critical reviews for her work, Clinton's contract with NBC was renewed in February 2012.[43][44][45]Rock Center ended in May 2013, and Clinton left the network in August 2014.[46][47] Clinton reportedly earned an annual salary of $600,000 for her work at NBC.[48]

While campaigning, Clinton answered audience questions but did not give interviews or respond to press questions,[54] including one from a nine year old Scholastic News reporter asking whether her father would be a good "first man."[55] She replied, "I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you're cute."[56]Philippe Reines, her mother's press secretary, intervened when the press attempted to approach Chelsea directly.[55]

When MSNBC reporter David Shuster characterized Clinton's participation in her mother's campaign as "sort of being pimped out," the Clinton campaign objected. Shuster subsequently apologized on-air and was suspended for two weeks.[57]

The first time she was asked about her mother's handling of the Lewinsky scandal at a campaign stop Clinton responded, "I do not think that is any of your business."[53] As she became a more experienced campaigner, she refined her responses and deflected questions on the issue with comments such as, "If that's what you want to vote on, that's what you should vote on. But I think there are other people [who are] going to vote on things like healthcare and economics."[53][58]

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Chelsea called Hillary "my hero and my mother" and introduced her with a long video tribute.[59] After this appearance she returned to New York City and her private life.

Following their wedding, the couple lived for three years in New York City's Gramercy Park neighborhood,[61] later purchasing a condominium in the Flatiron District of Manhattan for $10.5 million.[63] Clinton announced in April 2014 that they were expecting their first child.[64] She gave birth to their daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, on September 26, 2014.[65]